An Occasion Of The Future The Should Not Be

Chapter 1- Awakening to the Nightmare

Lord Voldemort stood at the far end of his dining hall, loosely listening to the conversation of his son with Draco Malfoy. There was talk of hunting. Voldemort gazed out the window at the horizon where the sun would soon be rising and smiled, clasping his hands behind his back. His son. Though Dumbledore had forced the two into hiding, soon Harry would be ready to help put both into power. Now it was just a waiting game.

As Draco left the room, Harry approached his father struggling to make his constantly unkempt hair lie flat. He bit his lip nervously, rubbing one palm against his pant leg. His father could be very extreme when thoughts were interrupted. Even Harry had known the pain of the Cruciatus curse at Voldemort's hands. "I'm going outside with Draco," he announced after a moment of nonbreath.

"That is fine," Voldemort said, not even benefiting his son with a look. "Just stay within the Malfoy limits."

Harry's face darkened. "Why?!" he yelled. "Why must *I* be the one to slink in the shadows? We're the powerful ones, we should be destroying our enemies-!"

"Patience, my son, is a virtue you must learn," Voldemort replied smoothly, gliding towards Harry. "The Ministry grows fat and lazy in their ignorant belief that I am powerless."

"Then what are we waiting for?" the boy hissed, growing sunlight glinting off of his glasses. He slapped his hand against the table for emphasis.

Voldemort sighed indulgently. "You know very well why."

"Dumbledore," Harry sneered. "That old fu-"

Lunging forward, Voldemort came dangerously close to strangling his son. "You will not use that filthy Muggle language in my presence, boy!" he spat out.

Trying to maintain his defiant attitude, Harry swallowed and took a step back. "I... I'm sorry, Father. It won't happen again."

"No, it won't." Voldemort relaxed. "Soon. Soon we will destroy Dumbledore. Then the rest will fall into place." He affectionately squeezed the boy's shoulders. "Now, go outside and enjoy yourself."

* * * * *

Muttering darkly to himself about his father's sexual orientation and intelligence, Harry found Draco standing in front of one of Lucius Malfoy's many paintings. Harry frowned at it. "Who is that?"

Draco snorted. "*That* is Salazar Slytherin," he said as if talking to a child.

"I know that," Harry snapped. "Who is that with him?"

The other person appeared genderless, wearing what appeared to be swirling red robes. They glanced up once, looking at Harry with unusually black eyes. Harry was disturbed by the person's lack of sclera. They returned to their business of sharpening a sword with a black rock. Slytherin was watching the other with mild interest, arms folded across his chest and lounging against a tree.

"I have no idea," Draco grumbled. "They refuse to speak. Either of them. My father yelled for an hour once. They just looked bored."

Harry cocked his head to one side. "Huh." He shook his head. "Let's go outside."

The two boys went outside, crossbows in hand. Harry was still grumbling about his father's lack of initiative. "I'm fifteen and he still treats me like a child," Harry was griping.

"Fathers do that," Draco grumbled, drawing back the bowstring on his own crossbow. Both boys found hunting with magick to offer little sport.

"But do I need *him* to follow me around?" Harry glared over his shoulder at Wormtail, who was fighting his way out of a bush. He waved at the boys, Draco waved weakly back.

"Accidents happen all the time," Draco advised softly.

Both fell silent as a large stag stepped into their path. The stag regarded the two boys, his ears twitching forward. Harry let out his breath in a shaky exhale. There was something he was supposed to remember-

A sharp twang startled Harry. The stag reared up, then fell lifeless to the ground. Draco shouted in triumph and ran to his kill. Harry approached slowly, sadness seeping into him.

"Excellent shot, young Malfoy!" Wormtail was congratulating, now free of the bush.

Harry stared at the stag. He blinked, and a man who looked strangely like himself only older, had replaced the animal. A woman screamed in the distance. "What was that?" Harry asked, looking over his shoulder. Looking back, the man was a stag again.

"I didn't hear anything," Draco shrugged, struggling to get his arrow back.

"I heard a woman scream," Harry insisted.

"There was no scream, young Voldemort," Wormtail assured.

A twig snapped. The hunting party looked up to see Severus Snape, potions teacher at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and spy for Voldemort, standing a few feet away. Draco practically tripped over himself trying to put himself between the professor and Harry. "Professor Snape! How are you... doing?"

Harry blinked rapidly. Did Snape just walk *through* Draco? Snape stood a breath and an infinity away from Harry, completely ignoring Draco.

Snape looked down at the stag, then back to Harry in a single fluid movement. "Remind you of someone?" he asked coolly.

"You know the rules," Wormtail warned, stepping close but not touching Snape.

Snape's eyes narrowed dangerously. Such dark eyes... "As do you, *Wormtail*," he replied. Wormtail backed off, glaring.

"No," Harry finally answered. "It's an animal, why would it remind me of anyone?"

Snape continued on past Harry in long flowing steps. He paused, not turning. "Look for me when it does."

Harry glanced at the stag, then back at Snape. But Snape had all ready disappeared as enigmatically as he came.

"Ignore him," Wormtail advised. "He's not all up there."

"He gets creepier every time I see him," Draco agreed.

Harry still felt disturbed.

* * * * *

Harry lay in his bed late that night, his hands clasped behind his neck and staring at the ceiling. Draco had gone to bed early, getting rest before leaving for Hogwarts in the morning. Sometimes Harry longed for a normal life like his friend had, to be able to go to school, to be around others his own age.

But Father insisted that he was better than all other wizards and witches and it just wouldn't do for him to befriend too many of them, lest they drag him down. Harry snorted disbelievingly to himself. The old fool. Maybe he should take out both his father and Dumbledore.

Harry raised his body into a sitting position at the sound of voices arguing outside of his bedroom. No, wait... at the end of the hallway.

Deciding that eavesdropping was much more exciting than lying in bed waiting for a sleep that may or may not come, Harry crept to his door and opened it.

Snape had apparently returned and was standing in front of that whacked out Slytherin painting. Wormtail was yelling at Snape. "You know how this works, 'Severus'!"

Snape wasn't even looking at Wormtail. He appeared more interested in the painting. "Keep your voice down, the Boy's room isn't that far away. You might draw his attention," Snape drawled, yawning.

Harry grinned. *Too late for that one.*

"What did you think you were pulling back at the stag?" Wormtail hissed.

"I had nothing to do with that," Snape replied. "These two really refuse to talk?" he asked about the painting, tapping his finger against it.

Wormtail threw his hands into the air. "Who gives a damn about that painting?" he shrieked.

Snape drew his face in close to Wormtail's. "Watch yourself, fool," he hissed. "That painting is very important to our continued existence. Or do you forget that we are on borrowed time?"

Snarling, Wormtail pushed Snape away. "You may be on borrowed time, my dear," he sneered. "But you did that one to yourself, didn't you?"

A dark look passed over Snape's features. Harry gasped. He could have sworn that the white's of Snape's eyes disappeared. But when Snape blinked, his eyes were perfectly normal. "As if you wouldn't have done the same if give the chance," he murmured levelly.

Wormtail grinned wolfishly in Snape's face. "You fancy that boy, don't you?"

Snape frowned, then burst out laughing and turned to walk a bit farther down the hall. Harry rushed forward silently and hid under a table to continue listening to their conversation. "Fancy the boy?" Snape giggled. "Oh, my sweet, he's entirely too young for me." Somehow, giggling did not fit for this strange man.

Licking his lips pointedly, Wormtail shook his head. "That didn't stop you with the last one."

Snape sighed. "That was different." He walked back to the painting.

"Just don't forget your place," Wormtail warned softly from the shadows.

"Don't worry, my sweet, I haven't forgotten the rules-"

"Ah, what a selective memory you have," Wormtail gloated, sliding up quick to Snape. "Or have you all ready forgotten the incident in the cave? You tried to warn him-"

"Did I?" Snape looked slyly at Wormtail. "Prove it. Technically, it never happened, did it? Or we wouldn't be here right now, would we?"

Wormtail's jaw worked for a moment. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again," he hissed. "I would hate to give the Master reason to doubt your... integrity."

"I am as loyal to our Master as you are, and don't worry: I still know my place. Make no doubt of that. But I am keeping the boy's best interests in my heart," Snape stated.

"And if you should gain your own freedom in the process?" Wormtail smiled evilly, slipping a hand around Snape's waist. The skin by Snape's eye twitched. "Ah, so that's your plan, mon amour." Wormtail stroked the underside of Snape's chin. "Be careful lest you draw him into your place."

"Like you did to me all those years ago?" Snape snarled, slapping Wormtail's hands away. He turned abruptly on his heel and stalked off. "And it's rude to eavesdrop!" he yelled over his shoulder.

Harry was so startled that he jumped up and hit his head on the bottom of the table top. "Ouch!" he yelped.

"Ah, my lovely 'Severus'," Wormtail sighed quietly and walked over to Harry. "Come, you should be in bed and not listening to the rantings of two old fools."

Harry's head swirled with questions. Snape and Wormtail? That was unnatural somehow. Scary enough for the boy to think of Pettigrew with anyone, let alone a man... let alone Snape! "Has Snape been unloyal to my father?" he gasped as Wormtail helped him to his feet and ushered him back to his room.

That brought a deep laugh from Wormtail. "Hardly," he said as his laughter subsided. "No, there is a greater master Snape and I serve... But you need not worry with that."

*No... No need to worry about that at all. Forget it was said at all. Sleep, Harry. Sleep now and all will be right in the morning...*